Software engineer (MINERVA accelerator)

You will:

• be part of an international team creating a first of a kind proton accelerator;
• elaborate requirements with system users;
• participate in the design of critical core systems and concepts;
• technical follow-up of external partners.

We are ready to design and build this accelerator. Are you?

Together with a large team of ambitious engineers and researchers, SCK CEN wants to develop new medical radioisotopes to treat cancer patients and solve the nuclear waste issue by means of the MYRRHA project. The MYRRHA project’s first phase (start of commissioning scheduled for 2026) consists of a proton accelerator with one of a kind reliability and two target facilities with which research can be performed into radioisotopes, radioactive ion beam physics and nuclear fusion reactor materials. The subsequent phases extend the accelerator to drive a sub-critical reactor intended to proof the concept of nuclear waste transmutation (start of commissioning scheduled for 2040). To help us achieve our ambitious goals, we are looking for a Software engineer.

As Senior Software Engineer, you will be act as a Product Owner to establish the backlog based on the stakeholder needs for components of the software-based control and interlock systems (CIS) of the accelerator and proton target facilities. In the role of a Software Expert you will follow up the design, implementation, test and delivery activities performed by external partners. For this, you will report to the MINERVA ICS group leader and work very closely together with other expert groups and external partners. Although hands-on activities such as programming are only a minor part of the activities, knowledge gained during software programming activities are essential to carry out the function for the project.

• elaborate needs with stakeholders for design and development by external partners;
• participate in the design of critical core software systems and concepts;
• technical follow-up of external partners, including review (documents, code) and acceptance;
• set-up integration test stands and perform integration tests with users;
• create training material and guidelines to unify development activities (programming language, repository layouts, user interface and unit testing);
• coach and train users, primarily software and electronic engineers of external partners, to follow in-house processes and guidelines.

To join this frontier, you’ll need

• a Master’s degree or higher in Software Engineering or equivalent;
• 5+ years of work experience as a software developer or software architect;
• previous experience in software projects deployed on embedded, real time or industrial hardware, ideally an accelerator control system project using EPICS (Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System) and Linux;
• very good knowledge of object-oriented programming and software patterns;
• knowledge in modelling languages, preferably Unified Modelling Language (UML);
• experience with unit and acceptance testing (frameworks), for example Google Test and Serenity;
• basic knowledge of version control systems (as user), for example git;
• excellent people management and interpersonal skills;
• spoken and written knowledge of English with the ability to draw up and review technical texts.

Deadline 16/04/2023